A quarterly newsletter from the Botany Dept (NMNH) and the U.S. National Herbarium.

10/29/2008

IAPT Honors Nicolson with Named Fund

Dan H. Nicolson has been honored by the International Association for Plant Taxonomy (IAPT) by having the first ever IAPT endowment for research awards named after him. Nicolson is being recognized for contributing to IAPT and its mission in numerous ways for over five decades. Once successfully established, one Nicolson Fund Award will be made each year. The Nicolson Fund is intended to support research that emphasizes nomenclatural and herbarium work.

During his career Nicolson has become widely known for his systematic work on the tropical plant family Araceae, but is especially well regarded as one of the foremost specialists on botanical nomenclature. His expertise has been widely sought for decades throughout the botanical community. Nicolson has contributed directly to IAPT in many forms over a period of decades, especially in the area of nomenclature: he has served on the Editorial Committee of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (1981-2007), the General Committee (1981-2000), the Spermatophyta Commit­tee (1975-1987; 2001-date), ­Committee on Typification of Generic Names (1978-1981), Committee on Orthography (1981-1987), Vice-President, Bureau of Nomenclature (1987), President, Bureau of Nomenclature (1999), President of Nomenclature Section (2005), and the Nomenclature Editor of Taxon (1979-1999). He also has served extensively as an IAPT officer including Vice President (1985-1993) and President (1993-1999). His recent out­standing contribution to our knowledge of the Forsters and the botany of the 2nd Cook Expedition was recognized by receiving the IAPT Stafleu Medal for 2004.

Over his long career, Nicolson has taken on thousands of nomenclatural problems from colleagues worldwide. His thoroughness, friendliness, and balanced personality have always been ­appreciated and have allowed real progress to be made.